This may be a stupid question but.."Can a 'Covert' Agent, Ever

[Bluerthanblue]

be 'Safely' outed?

What i'm asking is, if a person works as an 'undercover' agent for the govt, even if they are not at any given time actually continuing to 'work' on a case- revealing the fact that they are/were connected to undercover information gathering puts THEM, and more seriously in this case, their 'informants' and 'contacts' in mortal danger.

Anyone who had anything to do with Valerie Plame during her time as an 'operative' would be suspect of having 'squealed' or 'sold out' to the enemy- wouldn't they???

Look at it in reverse- if we in the US learn that someone has at ANY time had anything to do with 'Afghanistan' or 'Muslim' contacts no matter how long ago, or how briefly their affiliation- is seen as a potential terrorist- and treated as such- To be 'tainted' by any connection to Ms. Plame, would be a death sentence to many - regardless of any cooperation, or 'leaking' on the part of the person in question.

So, when the 'spinners' try to say, "She wasn't ACTING in a 'covert' position' when the 'outing' occurred" means squat- (in my view) - The lives of anyone who had contact with her are ALL put in jeopardy, and the ..willingness ... of any 'new' sources to help 'counter-terrorism' would be greatly influenced in a negative way-

Or am i just too paranoid?- 'James Bond', would never want 'his' role revealed, even if he wasn't working any longer- the repercussions have the potential to be disastrous for so many people???

[Rose Siding]

1. LAT has a piece about just that today

It doesn't look like there's any safe way to out an agent...

WASHINGTON — Several months after her identity as a CIA operative was exposed in a newspaper column, Valerie Plame had dinner with five of her classmates from the agency's training academy.

Four had left the CIA, and they spent the evening catching up on what they'd done during their clandestine careers, as well as the jobs and moves that followed. But even though Plame's "cover" had been cracked wide open, her dinner companions didn't pry for details. Even in that tight circle, no one wanted to spill any more secrets.

"Cover is a mosaic, it's a puzzle," said James Marcinkowski, a former CIA case officer who attended the dinner. "Every piece is important because you don't know which pieces the bad guys are missing."
...
Still, her clandestine career is over, and the outrage among many current and former case officers lingers because cover is something they go to such great lengths to protect.

"It doesn't matter whether he used her name," Marcinkowski said of the recent disclosures surrounding Rove. "It doesn't matter what her status was. He gave up a piece of the puzzle and he had no right to do it."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-cia16jul16,0,5815740.story?coll=la-home-headlines

[shraby]

2. Not a stupid question....she WAS a covert

agent when outed and anything that is said differently is patently wrong. It's a crime to out a covert agent because it endangers anyone ever connected to her, lets other countries see how the US uses an operation like she had and drastically degrades our eyes and ears on the world.
The people involved in harming our national security are in deep trouble right now and are trying to spin their way out but it isn't going to work..Fitzgerald is seeing to that.

[Bluerthanblue]

6. thanks to both of you... i was

beginning to think i'd watched too many "mission impossible' shows
as a kid...
ya know "this tape will self-destruct in 15 seconds'-

and the 'being seen' with someone who turns out to be ...'dangerous' often can mean, kill them now- ask questions later-

i DO believe that this is a HUGE and foolish lapse of judgment- on many fronts- Unless this administration feels it has already 'achieved' the ultimate power cabal, and can do anything it pleases, without facing the "Responsibilities" shrub so often likes to preach about, but never actually do himself-

[many a good man]

3. No. Especially when their "front company" is still in business

Everyone who currently works for or has ever worked for the firm is under suspicion everywhere around the world. So are their business and government contacts. Its a MAJOR disaster.

Valerie Wilson came back to Washington in the late nineties when she married Joe and continued working at Langley. That doesn't mean people in Africa and the ME knew she worked for the CIA covertly. They might think she married a diplomat and he got her a job there. Now everything's blown wide open because of Novak et.al.

[vickitulsa]

4. You're not too paranoid; you have it right!

Think of it this way.  Who's to say that even if Plame was
"flying a desk" back at headquarters at the time her
identity was revealed by a leaker, the CIA may have had plans
to use her again in a mission-critical role on a future
operation?  Those who outed her robbed our side of any further
covert usefulness Plame might have had.

And even if she would not have been so used by the CIA, it is
still, IMO and I think technically, legally, A CRIME to out
anyone who was a covert operator -- EVER.

A previous partner of mine was a Navy SEAL and I learned an
awful lot from his exciting life in covert ops.  You just
don't out a covert operator because it DOES endanger not only
that individual but also anyone with whom that person worked,
Americans or those from other countries as well.  The anger
and bitterness of some people affected by the covert ops, or
their family members, can fester for many years, for decades,
and result in retribution being taken if a covert officer is
identified publicly....

I'm hoping this principle will become clear to the citizens
who haven't yet made up their minds about whether it was wrong
to out Valerie Plame Wilson.  It was wrong, no two ways about
it, and nothing the Republicans can say, no excuses they can
give or qualifiers they may throw out there, can make it right
-- or even "tolerably permissible."  Anyone who outs
a covert operator can get people killed, it's that simple. 
And that's why it's a crime, that's why it's treason.

[dansolo]

5. The statute specifically says five years

If the agent was acting covertly outside of the country within the past five years.

[TahitiNut]

7. That's only one of many laws regarding disclosure of classified info.

As long as the intelligence agency has good reason to keep secret the identities and roles of individuals and companies engaged in gathering intelligence, and takes affirmative action to protect such 'secrets,' the disclosure of such information is prosecutable under a variety of laws.

[kenny blankenship]

8. Not to mention

that the network of contacts she built up or inherited, is now probably SOME OTHER COVERT AGENT'S NETWORK. The people that she worked with abroad are probably in contact with her CIA replacement. Out Plame, and you expose her foreign contacts from a few years ago; expose her foreign contacts, and you may out the CIA operative who is abroad and working with them now.